VisionOS 2

The new version of VisionOS 2 will allow you to convert 2D photos into 3D photos and share them with your friends in a panoramic format. There are also updates to the interaction with the interface. By moving your hand, you can view settings, time or battery life.

VisionOS 2 makes it easier for developers to create applications. There are new large APIs that allow you to run two applications at the same time, a new developer kit called TabletopKit for games, and new enterprise APIs. In addition, the PC experience will be improved and Canon will offer a new spatial lens for the EOS R7 camera that will allow you to create video with better quality than the iPhone 15 Pro.

VisionOS 2 will be available this fall.

iOS 18

• Desktop. You can place application icons and widgets anywhere on the screen. Change to the Dark Mode. You can change the color and size of icons. iOS can suggest colors based on your wallpaper palette.
• In iOS 18, you can lock individual apps so that anyone who tries to open them must authenticate with a PIN or FaceID. Data from those apps will not show up in search or in other apps. You can also hide the application from prying eyes.
• You can now reply to messages in iMessage with any emoji, rather than a limited set.
• iOS 18 also updates Mail. Apple organizes messages by sender and links them to an app on your phone. You can reorganize emails, archive them, or delete all messages from companies. Categorization will be available later this year.
• You can transfer money by placing smartphones next to each other — the Wallet application lets you exchange money without a recorded number or email.
• Added Gaming Mode, which optimizes smartphone operation for better game quality and slows down background applications.
• Updated Apple Wallet interface for tickets. Journal will display more statistics, show series of entries and other details.
• There are also new changes in the Photo category, which is said to be the biggest redesign in history. The grid with pictures has been placed at the top, and the application functions at the bottom. The update makes it easier to sort screenshots or search for specific photos.

iOS 18 will be available this fall.

Audio & Home

AirPods

Accessing Siri will get easier. Now, instead of answering with your voice (like when someone calls you and you’re wearing headphones), you just have to nod your head “yes” or “no.” AirPods Pro should also get a voice isolation mode for more comfortable conversations in noisy places.

tvOs

Subtitles will appear automatically if you mute the sound. Additionally, it now supports 21:9 video format.

iPadOS 18

The most expected thing was the addition of a calculator (yes, it finally happened). The “Mathematical Notes” feature has been added. This means you can take the Apple Pencil, write down a mathematical expression, click equals, and the calculator should solve it. But this is not just about math, it is also about physics.

Calculator properties will also work in Notes. By the way, the Smart Script feature has been added to Notes. When you add copied text to a handwritten document, it analyzes the handwriting and creates the text in its style. If it is crossed out, it is then deleted, or vice versa.

On the other hand, the interface of popular applications such as Notes has been refined. Remote access to other users’ iPads with their permission has been introduced.

With SharePlay, you can share your screen and draw on someone else’s iPad screen. You can also view their screen, but only after asking permission.

iPadOS 18 will be officially released this fall.

watchOS 11

The updated watchOS includes a new Workout Mode feature. It monitors the intensity of your workout and tracks your progress. Apple uses a new algorithm and data from its sensors to estimate how much effort you put into your workout.

watchOS 11 includes a new Vitals app that lets you check your most important health metrics, including your heart rate. The watch will alert you to abnormal activity, and it will also be possible to monitor the impact of lifestyle on health, such as smoking or drinking alcohol. A new health tracking feature for pregnant women has also been added.

The Smart Stack in watchOS will automatically add new widgets, such as rain alerts. In addition, the Check In security feature will appear, for example, to notify you when you return home. Thanks to a double click, it will be possible to start the distance.

Another update is the dials, which will use machine learning to automatically adjust the style to your photo.

macOS Sequoia

Many of the features we have seen in iOS and iPadOS will also be available in MacOS Sequoia.

A new Continuity application will appear. It lets you mirror the iPhone screen on a MacBook: just click the icon. Notifications from your iPhone will also arrive on your Mac and appear next to your Mac notifications. Clicking on them will instantly open the app in the iPhone mirror. The iPhone can remain locked all the time.

MacOS Sequoia makes it much easier to arrange open windows — in any order on the screen.

Passwords is a new application for storing passwords from across the Apple ecosystem. It works across multiple devices: macOS, iPadOS, visionOS and iOS — and Windows when accessed via iCloud.

The Safari browser is getting a redesign and a number of new features. In particular, it will now be able to help you get more information about a page when viewing it in Reader.

Apple promises that MacBook will now support the highest quality games. Game Porting Toolkit 2 will make it easier for developers to port games to the Mac. It will also improve the porting of large games to iPhone and iPad.

macOS Sequoia will be available this fall.

Apple Intelligence

• Apple Intelligence is coming to MacBook, iPad, and iPhone. Customize personal messages based on your needs. Edit the text you write.
• Create unique photos and sketch illustrations in Notes, Freeform, and Pages.
• Use your voice to perform hundreds of actions. For example, show photos of a familiar person, play podcasts, and more.
• Apple’s artificial intelligence is based on personal information, as it will receive data from the calendar, screen, messages. But they promise that this data will not be used and shared with other companies. Everything will be stored on the phone and the special personalized cloud service Private Cloud Compute.
• Apple Intelligence will be available on the A17 Pro and M family of chips.
• They will use the phone’s performance as much as possible. If the task requires additional resources, they will turn to cloud applications.
• Image Wand is a new tool that will allow you to create notes (such as sketches). It also lets you remove extraneous elements from a photo.
• Apple Intelligence will also help you select photos and videos, create clips based on themes detected in your photos, and add background music and transitions.
• Notes get instant transcription.
• Apple is making it easy for developers to integrate AI. If the developer is using SiriKit, it will be easier to take advantage of Siri AI’s capabilities.
• Generative AI is also coming to Xcode.

Apple Intelligence will be available in iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia this fall.

Siri

Finally, Apple promises to make Siri more “livelike” and improve the user experience. The company promises that the voice assistant will now be able to understand mispronounced words. In addition, requests can now be made not only by voice, but also by writing a message.

You can also ask Siri how to use certain apps and programs. She will display instructions. In addition, the assistant can now interact with on-screen information, such as asking Siri to add an event to your calendar or an address to your map if it was sent to you by an application.

Thanks to Apple Intelligence, Siri will support actions in different applications. You can even ask Siri to extract the text from a photo (passport or driver’s license number) and paste it into the appropriate field.

Siri is also integrated with Mail. You can rewrite emails and get suggestions for different options and styles. Apple Intelligence makes it easier to prepare responses to letters. And your inbox will display a preview of each email with AI-generated summaries. It’s the same with notifications.

Priority notifications will be displayed and summarized at the top, so if you wake up to 100 Whatsapp notifications, you’ll see a condensed summary of the most important one.

Genmoji and Image Playground

Now you can create your own emojis by entering its description.

Apple also adds the option of generative AI — Image Playground, which allows you to instantly generate images in messages. You can also choose a style: animation, sketch or illustration. Images can be created based on your photos.

These features will also be available for KeyNote, FreeForm and Notion.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT has been integrated with Siri. It will also be able to interact with photos, documents or presentations. Can instantly rewrite something in notes or even generate text at your request, instantly generate images in applications.

ChatGPT is free to use and requires no authorization, or you can sign up to access its paid features. Apple promises that the chat will always ask for permission to process information.

ChatGPT will be available on iOS18, padOS18 and macOS Sequoia later this year. Apple also says that access will be available on other operating systems in the future.

• The company was accused of preventing Spotify and other music streaming services from informing users of alternative payment methods besides the App Store. The fine consists of two parts: a basic amount of €40 million and an additional €1.8 billion, which will serve as a deterrent. The total fine of €1.84 billion, which is 0.5% of Apple’s global turnover.
• Apple criticized the EU’s decision, saying it would challenge it in court. The decision of the court in Luxembourg, the second most important court in Europe, is expected to take several years to process the complaint. Until then, Apple will have to pay the fine and comply with the EU order.

• The European Commission’s decision was based on a complaint by the Swedish music streaming service Spotify in 2019. The complaint was filed because of restrictions imposed by Apple and the App Store’s 30% commission. The EU regulator also said Apple’s restrictions create unfair trading conditions.

Details of investigation:

The European Commission opened a formal investigation into Apple’s rules for app developers in June 2020. These rules apply to the distribution of applications through the App Store. Margrethe Vestager, the European Competition Commissioner, said it was the first time the commission had added an additional amount to an antitrust fine as a deterrent.

Millions of European music streaming users are left in the dark about all the options available. In addition, Apple’s anti-stealth rules have forced consumers to pay more for such services due to the high fees imposed on developers and passed on to consumers,

the EU Commission explained.

Apple said Spotify doesn’t pay Apple a fee because it sells its subscriptions from its website, not the App Store. Spotify, in its part, welcomed the EU’s decision, but said there were other problems in other areas.

• Alty Inc., jointly with the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, has launched a mobile application for tracking casualties of the invaders, called Russian warship go fuck yourself (РКИН). The main screen displays the number of losses by individual categories, including losses of enemy personnel.
• According to the company, after the English-language localization of the application, Apple requested to remove the data on death tolls. First, the company asked to remove all data, but after negotiations with the developer and an appeal against this decision, they left the requirement for manpower losses:

“Apple called our app potentially objectionable content based on the company’s ethical policy. We had a long argument with Apple, gave all the supporting data from open sources, and told them about the cooperation with the AFU and their “blessing“ to create this application. But the company delivered an ultimatum: either we remove these statistics, or they remove the application from the store,” the company told AIN.Capital.

As Alty explains, the company has to accept these requirements to keep the app. But it has been receiving a lot of questions from users who are concerned about this decision.

“We understand the users very well, but we can’t do anything about it yet. We are still negotiating with Apple to get this data back. There are already a few ideas for them to consider, but whether they will accept them, unfortunately, it is difficult to say right now,” the company says.

In the second quarter of 2022, Apple plans to produce 20% fewer smartphones iPhone SE — 2-3 million units less than previously planned. In addition, sources close to the company note that Apple has reduced its order of AirPods for 2022 by more than 10 million units.

This news confirms analysts’ forecasts who have warned that the COVID-19 pandemic in China and inflation caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine could hurt smartphone demand this year. Besides, they believe Apple faces challenges from the lack of a design upgrade for the latest SE and a $30 increase in its price from the 2020 model.

“It looks very similar to the iPhone SE (2020), a second refurbishment of the iPhone 8, and it is even less likely to arouse consumer demand,” Taiwan-based Isaiah Research analyst Eddie Han said, cutting his forecast sales for the model by 5 million units.

Apple has also asked suppliers to make a couple of million fewer units of the entire iPhone 13 model range. However, this adjustment was based on seasonal demand, say sources familiar with the matter.

According to Nikkei, such steps may also reflect growing pressure on global suppliers of chips, components, and the technology industry following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has compounded the years-long chip shortage and affected a range of industries.

As per experts, if Apple’s moves to cut production are confirmed, it could spark a chain effect on other electronics manufacturers. At the same time, Apple itself has not responded to such news in the media. The company is expected to release a new line of iPhones in late 2022.

The editor of AIN.Capital explains how to detect an AirTag if you were bugged.

Short version:

• If you have an iPhone, the system will warn you about someone else’s AirTag near you.
• If you have Android — download the app Detector and select the scan function.

Long version:

What is AirTag?

AirTag is a small tracking device. Once activated, the tracking beacon appears on the map in the Locator app, making it easy to see where one or more AirTags are located, even at a long distance.

AirTag itself can work for a year. It is moisture-resistant and connects in seconds.

Apple creApple created the gadget to protect people from losing their belongings: put one in a bag and always know where it is. But almost immediately, some people started using it for stalking. That is why Apple has developed a system of protection against such actions.

How to detect AirTag?

• If you have an iPhone, the system itself will warn you about the detection of someone else’s AirTag near you and push-notify you. Moreover, if the tracker has been near you for some time, the system will even show the earlier route. For example, you were given a backpack with someone else’s AirTag. You took it and left. As soon as you start moving, your iPhone will send a notification about an AirTag tracking you. You can turn on the sound to detect it.

• If you have an Android, Apple has released a special app Detector, which helps to detect other people’s AirTag near you. For this, there is a special scan button, which will detect nearby trackers.
• If you have an old-school phone — trouble. You need to look through stuff before accepting something from strangers.

Apple assures it is doing its best to make AirTag a device that keeps track of your belongings, not stalking other people. Nevertheless, cases like this happen from time to time. The guide helps find the gadget, but one still has to be careful.

According to Appleinsider, the banners appeared on March 4. So, Apple encourages iPhone and Mac users to support Ukrainians affected by the war. Users from Ukraine do not see these banners. Probably, the company launched them targeting Western countries.

Earlier, Apple CEO Tim Cook called on staff to support Ukraine with money and said he would double every donation.

You can also join. Below is a selection of reliable organizations or accounts for donating to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, assistance to displaced persons, and humanitarian needs.

• Apple is stopping sales of its products in Russia. The company’s sales channel in the country has already stopped working, and the company has also closed its exports to the Russian Federation. Thus, the company’s partners will sell the remaining devices and then will be able to trade only fake ones.
• Apple Pay and other services no longer work in the Russian Federation.
• Apple also pulled RT News and Sputnik News from its App Store.
• Also, the company will not show traffic jams and other information in Apple Maps in Ukraine because it may help the enemy — Russia.

AIN.Capital supports Apple’s decision and asks other Ukrainian and international companies to do the same. There is a war with Russia in Ukraine, not a humanitarian crisis or a difficult situation, as others say.

What does the memorandum stipulate?

The document was signed by the Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov and Worldwide Head of Public Sector of Apple Inc. Mark Lennon.

According to the text of the document, the parties will:

• collaborate on the planned population census of 2022-2023
• share experience and expertise in implementing projects related to the transition to paperless document management, as well as improving the experience of citizens’ interaction with public authorities
• develop the Diia app for the iOS operating system
• increase the digital literacy of Ukrainians
• develop initiatives to bring digital technologies to the healthcare sector

The Ministry of Digital Transformation and Apple will also create working groups responsible for developing detailed plans for the agreed initiatives, providing expert support, and holding meetings.

“The signing of the Memorandum with Apple is an important step not only for digitization in Ukraine but also for the recognition of our achievements in this field around the world. We are grateful to Apple for constant cooperation with our ministry and the opportunity to implement the world’s best solutions to achieve our most important goal — turning the state into a convenient and efficient service that you want to trust,” said Mykhailo Fedorov.

As part of the visit, there are also plans to sign a memorandum of cooperation between Apple and the Ukraine Ministry of Veterans Affairs. The company will assist in the digitalization, auditing, and maintenance of electronic health records of veterans using Apple’s current developments for collecting and processing information.

The director and producer, Volodymyr Mula, has had a conversation with AIN.UA about how a Ukrainian documentary did enrich the online databases of international video services and why it is not on Netflix.

When I started to think about the idea of my third film (the previous two called American Dream, 2015 and American Dream. In Search of the Truth, 2017), I set a strategic goal to create an English product for the international audience. Why this topic? I continued to research Ukrainian emigrants and their connection with Ukraine. Plenty of people worldwide identify themselves as Ukrainians and enjoy the worldwide glory, but in Ukraine, almost nobody knows them. Especially in hockey. For me, it was crucial to tell the stories of those people in Ukraine and, thanks to them, make Ukraine better known to the world. That is how UKE. The Untold Story of Hockey Legends arose. We worked on it for three years.

The total production cost is $225,000, and about $175,000 was a grant from the Ukrainian State Film Agency.

It is a 100% Ukrainian production. First, we invested our own money, then we have got some sponsor funds and applied for a grant from the State Film Agency. During the production, I started negotiations with the NHL to conclude a license agreement. Otherwise, we would not have been allowed to use labels, trademarks, titles of hockey clubs — all the NHL branding stuff — in the film. It was a round sum, but I clearly understood that everything must be legal if we enter the international distribution market.

Why not Netflix?

The first goal I set for myself was to get on Netflix. It was a pretty ambitious goal. When I started talking to people in the industry, especially in the US, they told me that many other platforms would make it easier to gain an audience. Moreover, I had a conversation with the Netflix UK office. They said that the product is great, but they did not take the finished documentary film from other producers now — created movies themselves or invest in the pre-production phase.

Interestingly, Netflix has a global database. So, if you contact the company once, it adds information about you and your movie to it. And it does not matter what office you visited, they can see it. There is no point in contacting Netflix’s US, Canadian, or other offices. The system works quite well.

Amazon Prime Video

The Amazon Prime case is partly a result of our cooperation with an American partner company. If you want to get on the international video services, you cannot do it without that kind of partnership because none of them works directly with Ukraine. The partner company does a great job in the US market: it builds communication with Amazon and gets its share of movie sales. And Amazon Prime Video gets its standard fee — 50%.

Together with our American partner, we fulfilled all technical recommendations from Prime Video for the movies and got familiar with the technical documentation. Every platform has its specific technical requirements. Amazon has several requirements for a film itself. In addition, you must send them all the graphic files in specified formats. The subtitles are also very important. They must be certified. In other words, they must be precise and demonstrate what happens on the screen. But even when you think you have fulfilled all the requirements, Amazon Prime Video cannot accept and refuse your film without naming a cause.

We did this with UKE without any claims and wasting time because I already had the experience with my previous movies. My first success in online distribution was on Amazon Prime with the American Dream. In Search of the Truth. This new case took us two months. And now we at TeleProstir Studio started to offer our help with Prime Video to Ukrainian producers who are sure about the level of their films.

It is worth mentioning that you will get nothing only because your movie was released on Amazon Prime Video. You need to understand how to attract people to watch your film. It is a giant marketplace where you can buy so many and so different movies. To make people watch your work, you must do either a magnificent promo campaign or somehow attract the viewers to come because the competition is unbelievable. They also have a rule — if a movie is not admired among viewers the platform can remove it.

Promo

The UKE promo was focused only on the American audience because Ukrainians also will watch the movie. After all, it is a Ukrainian product dedicated to issues positively accepted by our transatlantic viewers. In the first place, I wanted to film personalities who are well-known in the USA. I understood that they would help me with promotion on Amazon Prime Video. Otherwise, it would be too expensive to make promos with celebrities. The film characters gave interviews to us for free. They were just excited about the idea of the UKE movie.

Since July, it has had excellent numbers. You can buy the movie for $14.99 forever, and it will be stored in your library. Or you can watch it once for $9.99. 50% takes Amazon Prime Video; after that, you must pay various fees in America. So, the total income from such kind of distribution can be about 30%.

Our promotion is organic. I use social media. The film characters use them too. They have a great audience, and each of their posts on Twitter attracts attention. The advertising on media and TV in America is also too expensive.

Amazon provides its services — there is a promo system inside the marketplace. You set an ID for an object. In my case, for the movie. And the system recognizes your project. Then you set the price per click, the duration of the campaign, and your bank details. After the activation, the service automatically shows your movie on the main page of Amazon Prime Video among “Recommended.” You pay only after a person has clicked on the recommendation link and visited the movie page. From our experience, it is better to pay for the internal Amazon ad service than Facebook or Twitter ads.

Apple TV

I did not plan to go on Apple TV, but people from different countries who wanted to watch my film started asking me to create such a possibility. So, I began to look for options. Basically, I needed to find a platform that cooperates directly with Apple. According to the Apple policy, you can communicate with them only through authorized companies, so-called official representatives. I must find one — it was a European company.

Then I must convince European people that UKE is a cool movie with great potential. We started our communication in March, and only in June, the partner company gave its consent to deal with our film. Thus, I received all the technical requirements and specifications in June. During the next two months, we worked on technical issues, and in September, we have got an answer with a list of errors to be fixed. It is complicated to do everything right from the first. Because Apple TV’s technical requirements are different from Prime Video’s ones. While Amazon asks you to provide 3 graphical items, Apple wants to have six; the sound should be only 5.1. No other platforms have such format requirements.

Finally, in October, they confirmed all stuff. But not so fast, pals. Today the UKE movie is available in over 70 countries. The number of countries could be much higher. But in some countries, it is illegal to run films in English without localization, especially subtitles. Nowadays, we cannot show it in Germany, Spain, Italy, and France.

Recently, I’ve got the point that if a movie becomes available on Apple TV, there is activated a “radio effect.” If your product arises there, it becomes remarkable for media, film critics, local websites in different countries. My case is pretty funny. I was informed about the film release on the platform not from my partner because it was the weekend but from news on a Polish website.

The income is almost the same as at Prime Video — about 30% from the total box office. You must understand that entering Apple TV is more about your reputation than income at that stage. Nevertheless, it creates great opportunities for the studio — now the Ukrainians can watch a Ukrainian product on legal platforms worldwide; foreigners can enjoy a high-quality Ukrainian product, and our film production will catch the eyes of foreigners.

Where you can watch the documentary in Ukraine

We all know that it is impossible to cover the expenses for such content in Ukraine. The film was released at the beginning of December 2020. At the moment, it has been watched by over 5,000 people. From the perspective of documentary film-making, we made a record as the most successful documentary. But what are 5,000 views from the online streaming services perspective?

Moreover, our TeleProstir Studio managed to remove the movie from all illegal websites like Toloka or HDrezka. Now everyone can legally watch the film on MEGOGO.

Who can find a lost and turned off iPhone

The new “Find My” feature is available to users of the following iPhone models:

• iPhone 11
• iPhone 11 Pro / iPhone 11 Pro Max
• iPhone 12 / iPhone 12 Mini
• iPhone 12 Pro / iPhone 12 Pro Max
• iPhone 13 / iPhone 13 Mini
• iPhone 13 Pro / iPhone 13 Pro Max

The notification “iPhone Findable After Power Off” under the power-down toggle when shutting down your phone — means the feature is active.

How to activate the feature

If Apple’s Find My is turned off, you will have to set it up first. Here are instructions on how to start:

• Go to settings, tap on your name, and then on “Find My.”
• Tap on “Find My iPhone” and switch it on.

If you have upgraded to iOS 15, you can also activate “Find My Network,” which will let you find your phone even if it is offline.

If you enable the feature “Send Last Location,” it will send the location of your iPhone to your Apple account when the battery is about to die.

You can also track your iPhone using the Find My app on your Mac or another iPhone. Any browser will also work — go to iCloud.com/find and sign in using your Apple ID.

In the web version, you will be able to do the following: play the sound on your phone, put it on “Lost Mode,” or erase the data. When using the Find My app, you get the same options, plus map directions on how to get to your iPhone.

As Oleksii points out, such recognizable Kyiv locations as the KPI sports complex, as well as the square in front of it, appeared in the Apple presentation.

There were also obviously Ukrainian residential skyscrapers — users recognized them by their so typical balconies and local insulation of the facades.

Some other frames in the commercial can evoke nostalgia, but it is uncertain whether they show Kyiv. In the comments to Oleksii’s post, users note that their Ukrainian friends appeared in the presentation.

If you can recognize Kyiv in any other episodes of the Apple presentation, write to us, and we will add them to the article.

This is not the first time Apple films its product commercials in the capital of Ukraine. Back in 2017, the Apple Watch presentation was filmed at the Kyiv railway station and the Golden Gate metro station. In 2019, Apple released a commercial dedicated to wireless headphones AirPods. There you can also see Kyiv. Ukrainian studio Radioaktive Film was responsible for the shooting on the Ukrainian side.

A user of Twitter remarked that it looked a lot like the FlickType keyboard, an app developed in 2018 specifically for the Apple Watch.

A developer of FlickType will sue Apple. He also published a letter from the company that he received the day before. It says that his keyboard app for the Apple Watch does not meet the requirements of the Human Interface Guidelines and, therefore, it will be removed from the App Store.

For the FlickType founder, this is not his first lawsuit against Apple — his first time was in March 2021. The cause was the App Store blocking updates to the app, followed by a slew of FlickType copycat apps that cheated downloads and ratings by trickery, according to The Washington Post. Then the developer accused Apple, among other things, of fraud.

Recall that litigation between Apple and Epic Games ended only a few days ago in the US. As a result, the court ordered Epic Games to pay Apple 30% of the income received through the introduction of alternative payment — it’s $3.65 million. The court also found Apple’s ban to use third-party payment systems for applications in the App Store illegal.

Hardware import to Ukraine 

The first and foremost change in terms of business in Ukraine is the fact that Apple will bring their goods and take care of customs on its own. Previously, Asbis did this. As the company’s representatives told AIN.UA, Asbis used to get Apple goods to their warehouse in Prague and then bring them to Ukraine.

From now on, Apple will import products to Ukraine and then provide them to the Asbis’ local warehouse. It is the official distributor in Ukraine, and it will carry shipments to its partners around the country. 

“Apple indeed will now import to Ukraine and do the customs clearance by itself. But the rest of the work we will keep doing in the usual way. Basically, before Asbis-Ukraine used to get the goods at  Asbis-Group’s warehouse in Prague, while now we will get them in Ukraine,” said Asbis.

So is there any real change? According to AIN.UA’s information, several market players were circumventing the official schemes and were still importing some goods illegally by getting them from abroad first. Thus, some retailers had only about 20-30% of Apple goods legally.

And because of the fact that Apple will carry imports by itself, it will be easier for the company to control its partners from inside the country. Thus, the situation can turn upside down, causing the share of illegal products to decrease rapidly. So, there are two chains that will really suffer from the change. Noteworthy, these are the two who are arguing about the illegal trade the most. 

Combating unofficial sellers

Another problem of the Ukrainian market is the large number of players who openly sell smuggled Apple products. These companies operate in big cities, shopping malls and even have their partnership programs with banks.

One should not expect Apple to start up a brutal war with them. Apple is a big international brand, and they do not want the press accusing them of killing small businesses. Such actions bear a huge reputation loss.

Most probably, there would be negotiations with the big seller of contraband to clean up their product range. And ultimately, it may lead to starting a partnership between this chain and Asbis. They might send requests to change domain names, take away the logo from some websites. There won’t be any harsh measures.

Also, immediately after the launch of the business in Ukraine, Apple became a member of the American Chamber of Commerce (ACC). So, the interests on its behalf, most likely, would be provided by this organization.

Changes in B2B

Apple may become part of the b2b model once it enters the market. Currently, Asbis works with large official chains and can work directly with the biggest customers who buy large quantities of official products for themselves at once.

But now, Apple can take those biggest customers for itself and squeeze out Asbis. As a consequence, Asbis would take its smaller customers, and small private businesses would have to fight for their market share, having received another competitor represented by its main supplier, Apple.

Changes for customers

• After entering the market in other countries, Apple began to cooperate with two distributors (it is only Asbis in Ukraine now). The purpose of this is to strengthen the competition. Better competition usually results in better conditions, services, discounts, etc. There was no indication that such an approach would be used in Ukraine. Meanwhile, our insiders report that the situation might change shortly. As a result, customers can get better offers.
• Apple is actively hiring coaches to train the staff in the shops. The important thing to understand is that the company does not plan to open offline Apple Stores. The training is for the partner stores that are officially selling devices in Ukraine. Ideally, it should lead to better services. 
• There would be a Ukrainian version of the official website. 
• There could be a faster launch of some services in Ukraine. But one should not count on it too much. 

It is important to note that Apple is not planning to open an Apple Store in Ukraine. Also, it will most likely be impossible to buy electronics in the country through the official website apple.com in the next year or two.

We should not expect that Apple’s entry into the market will change prices either. It depends on the economic situation in Ukraine, not the company’s plans. There will be no American prices here (as well as in Europe).

To summarize, the state treasury is the main beneficiary of Apple’s official entry into Ukraine. The company is going to try to reduce the volume of “grey” imports, pay more taxes and make the market of Apple products in Ukraine more transparent.

What is featuring in the App Store all about?

Featuring is about promoting mobile applications and games in the form of topical collections in the App Store application. It is a list of Apple’s recommendations. You can see these lists on the home screen when you open the App Store, so it’s a great honor to be there.  

In fact, App Store advertises your  application or a game for free. The Apple team describes your product and chooses  the principle according to which these lists are made.

Each country has its own App Store with its own ranking of games and apps since its users have their own country-specific preferences and needs. Headway was featured in the education category 92 times in the UK, India, Australia, and Canada. Also, in the UK and Ireland, Headway received the “App of the Day” status four times – that is, the Headway logo and name were the first things people saw when they opened the App Store.

Who might want to get featured and why?

1. Developers of games and apps. It allows you to introduce yourself, to get organic traffic and installations for free, and, of course, it boosts your reputation. If you’ve been featured, Apple thinks you’re cool.
2. Users. The topical collections help you quickly find the app you need if you don’t have a specific one in mind. The “App of the Day” prompts the user to download a completely new product.
3. Apple. To get featured, a team must come up with a great product. That improves the quality of the apps listed in the App Store and helps meet the needs of every user.

What do you need to do to get featured?

• File a request by filling out a special form on the Apple website. Indicate a name, describe a product, and provide a link. 
• Of course, you have to get ready by getting rid of design bugs and shortcomings as best you can. After you are done, update screenshots and product descriptions in the App Store and take care of negative comments. 
• It is very important to write a great cover story “About the product” that will sell or won’t sell your product to the editors of the App Store collections.
• And then wait. If the application is approved (that is, the editor has found your product worthy of attention), the developers will get access to a page in Apple Connect where they need to present the product in detail by the indicated deadline.
• Allow time to moderate your content. If you submit your application an hour before the deadline, it is highly likely you will be late. We ran the risk of missing the deadline because we did not take into account the ban on showing devices that refer to Apple in visual materials. And given the fact that our episode was about a smartphone (which looks like an iPhone by default), we had to do everything over again and within the shortest time possible. You will be provided with a to-do/not-to-do checklist to be studied.

Five factors to consider if you want to get featured

1. The promise of the product is confirmed by numbers, namely, the number of downloads, ratings, and earnings;
2. An app has a unique story, a technical solution, or a specific problem it solves. This could be a note-taking app, a handy solution for millions, or a fitness tracker for disabled swimmers.
3. The app has been localized in many countries.
4. The app and its App Store page are regularly updated.                
5. The application is nice, understandable, and user-friendly. Amen!

100% paid products are rarely featured. The editor is more likely to choose an app that works by subscription.

Column “Rumor has it.” It is believed that Apple willingly features applications that have iPad and Apple Watch versions. This is an unwritten rule, but practice shows that it works. Relying on this information, we adapted the application for an iPad within three days (and three nights).

Headway did not submit an application – Apple offered us to get featured

An App Store representative contacted us via the email address indicated in the Headway description. We immediately got a page in Apple Connect, were asked to introduce ourselves, and to prepare some visual materials. We had two weeks to do this. It came out of the blue, so we had to work at night and on weekends. We planned every single step and allocated the necessary resources. The entire team pitched in. It was great. Everyone knew what we were doing and, most importantly, why we were doing it. Then I realized that the key to success in getting featured and the success of the product itself depends on teamwork.

As a result, we have been featured 96 times in 144 countries.  

What are the benefits of featuring for Apple?

• To date, featuring has brought 20,000 new organic users. In general, the number of organic views will grow from 50 to 150% on the days of big featuring (that is what we call getting to the home screen or any featuring in a large number of countries).
• A mark on the application page that it was featured as the “Application of the Day.” Since it is visible to potential users, it is likely to increase the number of installations.
• Display priority. When a user is looking for an application that was featured, a block with an editorial article shows up in the search results. It pushes aside the following results, so the probability that the user will notice your app is higher. 

• Apple has offered Headway to place a demo app on company gadgets in offline stores. The default apps are chosen by Apple rather than the store. Headway is now available on iPhones and iPads in Apple stores in over 35 countries, including the UK, US, and China.
• “Friendship” with Apple has boosted brand awareness and reputation. For example, when Apple gives a big presentation, your app might hit the screen and get noticed by a potential audience. I’m sure we are going to see Headway at the WWDC presentation very soon.

Author: Anatolii Denysiuk, Head of UX/UI at Headway

According to ITC.UA, Apple applied for the registration of the trademarks back in 2017.

As previously reported by AIN.UA, lately, Apple has been regularly looking for employees to staff its Kyiv office that is registered in the Pecherskyi District of Kyiv, at the IQ Business Center. Now the company is looking for a Tax Analyst and a Country Field Staff Manager.

The company registered a Ukrainian legal entity back in April 2020, but no specific plans on entering the market have been announced.

As for Facebook, it has registered the trademark of the standalone virtual reality headset Oculus, which is not yet officially sold in Ukraine.

AIN.UA editor tells the details of the story.

On April 3, 2020, the customer hired a programmer (private entrepreneur) to develop an iOS application for Rooki.net service and publish it in the App Store. The parties concluded an agreement. The customer transferred UAH 40,500 to the developer for the work. According to the case file, the programmer wrote the application, but the customer was unable to test it due to some flaws.

The customer filed a lawsuit against the programmer because he believes that the latter poorly fulfilled his obligations and did not fulfill the contract’s terms. The plaintiff asked the court to terminate the agreement and recover material losses from the programmer in the amount of UAH 48,500 and UAH 10,000 in moral damages.

On September 25, the Sykhivskiy District Court of Lviv accepted the claim for consideration. On March 16, 2021, the court ruled against the plaintiff. The court made this decision because it established that on May 6, 2020, the programmer fulfilled the obligations under the contract “in full,”i.e., created a working Rooki application verified by the plaintiff, which was transferred to the App Store platform. The court did not find evidence that the plaintiff had drawn up a bilateral document with a list of necessary improvements and a deadline for completion on the app. Also, the court did not find evidence that the customer corresponded with the contractor and told him about the claims and flaws in the application.

At the same time, the customer (who wished to remain anonymous) in the commentary to AIN.UA said that the FOP (private entrepreneur) had missed the application development deadline and refused to make the necessary improvements to it, and erased all correspondence as soon as he received a complaint from the customer:

“The applications (Android and iOS) were developed for volunteer assistance to the elderly. Problems arose in the performer’s dishonest attitude: deadlines were disrupted, the application, as a result, did not meet the App Store requirements due to the lack of a volunteer verification mechanism. As a result, the contractor refused to make the necessary improvements to the application, and after receiving the claim, he erased all the correspondence in Telegram.”

It should be noted that the Android version of the Rooki app was published on Google Play in April 2020 (in the same month, the contract for the development of the iOS app was concluded as well).

The third party in the case is the Ukrainian office of Apple. In December 2020, the same court ruled to request data from Apple concerning the reason why the app was not published on the online store, as well as whether this decision was due to technical or software flaws in the app.

The customer of the application does not agree with the court’s decision and is now preparing an appeal.

According to the LinkedIn page and mass media, Peter Ronald Denwood has been working at Apple since 2013 and currently holds the position of Director of International Corporate Law. He has already been involved in setting up the company’s external assets.

For example, as Bloomberg reports, in 2019, when Apple acquired the U.K. startup Spectral Edge Ltd., Denwood became its CEO after other board members stepped down. He also previously ran the company’s India office. Before joining Apple, he was a partner at Baker McKenzie.

To recap, the company has recently been looking for employees on a regular basis for its Kyiv office, registered in the Pechersk district of Kyiv (IQ Business Center). The company registered the Ukrainian legal entity back in April 2020, but it is not yet known about Apple’s specific plans to enter the market.

About the job

The Country Field Staff Manager leads the sales team that works with Apple’s partner retailers. This specialist reports directly to the Country Manager. He/she will be accountable for setting and realizing the quarterly business plan and targets within the relevant program channel partners in Ukraine. The main tasks also include: finding specialists and building the sales team, working with retailers, etc.

Key requirements

• The specialist must have experience in a leadership role in a multi-layered and dynamic, results-driven work environment.
• The specialist must know how to deliver the best possible customer experience and understand the needs and values of users of Apple products.
• The specialist must be able to solve problems creatively and think critically.
• The specialist must have excellent communication skills and know how to build advocacy with store staff and key partners within the store through communication, collaboration, and training.
• Bachelor’s Degree is preferred, with excellent English verbal and written communication skills.

Why it’s important: Apple has already posted the third position for its Kyiv office. Officially, the company has not yet opened a representative office in Ukraine, but it has already registered a legal entity. The company still has a job opening for an Indirect Tax Analyst. This year, Apple also began to localize the Ukrainian version of its website.

According to the Internet Archive, from approximately December 2020 to early March 2021, this web address was redirected to the home page of the website. Before that, the redirect did not work (it produced a Page not Found message). So, the page may have been up and running fairly recently (in March 2021).

It may be connected with Apple’s plans to enter the Ukrainian market. In the spring of 2020, the company registered a legal entity in Ukraine and posted several openings. For example, in February, the company published a position of Indirect Tax Analyst for the office in Kyiv.

Ukraine is among the anti-leaders. Only Filipinos have to work more to afford the new iPhone. For more details, see the infographics below.

In Ukraine, iPhone 12 Pro (128 GB) costs 39,999 UAH (approx. $1,409). According to the State Statistics Service, the average salary in Ukraine is 11,998 UAH (9,658 UAH after taxes deduction, which is about $340). Thus, the average Ukrainian needs to work 87 days to be able to buy the iPhone 12 Pro, if not spend money on food.

But there is also good news: compared to last year’s iPhone index, Ukraine’s index has improved by 9.7 days.

• In Switzerland, the United States, and Australia, the high level of income allows people to make money on the new iPhone in 4.4, 6.1, and 6.6 days respectively.
• The Philippines has the worst result out of all the countries where the price of the new iPhone 12 Pro is known: the average citizen should work 88.2 days to afford the new iPhone.
• In Germany and Poland, the new gadget is equivalent to earnings for 9.7 and 28.3 working days.

Methodology

• The iPhone 2020 Index is calculated based on the official prices for the iPhone 12 Pro (128 GB), as indicated in Apple regional stores or at authorized retailers.
• Average salary information is taken from the websites of national statistical departments or ministries and is relevant at the time of publication of iPhone prices in a particular country.
• The amount of salary after taxes deduction is calculated with the help of local salary calculators. The monthly salary was divided by 21 – the average number of working days per month. In countries where statistical agencies use weekly rates, the amount of income was divided by 5.

Such cases are numerous. This has resulted in the emergence of a new kind of business: Apple developer account that cost $99 can be purchased for $400 on Telegram. Sure enough, there appeared scammers “selling” registrations for $75.

AIN.UA’s editor talked to developers and intermediaries to get the gist of the problem and look at possible solutions.

What happened

To publish your application on the App Store, you must subscribe to the Apple Developer Program. The subscription costs $99 per year and allows developers to place and monetize their iOS applications, paying Apple 30% of their income.

But, since about November last year, developers from Ukraine have been facing difficulties with the subscription payment – the money just would not be debited from their accounts. As a result, they were unable to register a new account or extend an existing one.

“This is a serious problem: if an account has not been extended for a long time, Apple can remove all the developer’s applications from its App Store. These are the company’s rules,” Habr writes.

The issue is not limited to Ukraine only but extends to the whole CIS and even the EU countries. It does not affect developers from the US, UK, and Canada, though.

Eventually, with patience and perseverance, accounts get registered at last after several months. But this is only half the battle. Afterward, many developers find out that they still cannot use their accounts, even though the money has been debited. The reasons may vary.

The case of Wild Web Art studio: transliteration discrepancy

Wild Web Art outsourcing company helps entrepreneurs from different countries create their applications and IT products. In May, a Ukrainian client asked the company to create a developer’s account for him. The company acceded to the request.

They registered a new Apple ID and tried to buy a subscription to the Apple Developer Program with it. Immediately, they encountered a problem.

“We received a notification that a subscription order was placed, but the money was not charged. There were even no transaction requests to the bank. We tried paying with cards of different banks – PrivatBank and monobank – but to no avail,” Serhiy Lavrinchuk, founder and CEO of Wild Web Art, told AIN.UA’s editor.

For some period of time, Lavrinchuk held correspondence with Apple’s support service, but this would not produce any results. “At first, we received some trivial advice, sort of like please check your Internet limit or your card balance. We were getting the impression that they were simply unaware of the problem. And then they just stopped answering.”

Calls to Apple’s international support service were fruitless as well; it turned out that the Apple Developer Program is a separate entity with its own support. But it is impossible to get them on the phone: the number that Serhiy got from Apple’s support is not in service any longer, and the telephone support option has been removed from the official website altogether.

The Wild Web Art team began to investigate the problem. They discovered that it had existed since long ago; there were multiple dedicated threads on web forums and in Telegram chats involving thousands of users. In one of these channels, Lavrinchuk came across instructions from a developer who managed to solve the problem and pay for the account. One of the key points there was to pay with a card that had been previously used to make purchases from the App Store, as well as to bring a senior support manager into the process.

“We made our way through to a Senior Advisor, and she understood the core of the problem at once. After a few days, everything was resolved: the payment went through, the money was debited, and an Apple Developer account was available to us,” Serhiy says.

“But it was too early to celebrate: the account was registered but we couldn’t publish applications under it. The required interface just wouldn’t open.”

As the same manager explained, the problem might have arisen due to the discrepancy in the user’s name transliteration: the Apple ID had the surname spelled differently than that on the bank card to which the payment was charged. She requested some additional information and promised to address the issue.

A month has passed since then. “We communicate with the support, they say they work to solve the problem, without specifying the time period,” Serhiy says.

This account is still not activated; in fact, we simply lost those $100. An unpleasant experience with Apple – this is something we didn’t expect.”

The case of Igor Kalinin: the address in Donetsk Oblast

The developer Igor Kalinin was trying to register an account since May 8.

After two months of communication with the support and several dozen failed attempts to pay for the account, the money was finally debited. To make this happen, Igor sent a photo of his travel passport and his residence address to the Apple support agent.

“But when I used my login to sign in to Apple’s website, I found that the account was still not activated. To know the reason I had to spend another two months communicating with the support. It turned out, Apple was disturbed by the fact that I live in Donetsk Oblast,” Igor recounts.

Notably, Kramatorsk is a Ukrainian city away from the military action zone, which has been serving as the region’s capital for 6 years already. Previously, Igor had not experienced problems because of his residence registration. “I have a developer’s account on Google Play and freely receive payments from Google Adsense and Admob. I buy applications from Apple Store without any issues. Neither myself nor the people I know have ever encountered such restrictions.”

The persistent attempts to make it clear to Apple that Kramatorsk is not subject to the US government sanctions were unsuccessful.

“The situation seemed hopeless. I didn’t know what to do. Should I open a new account? Move to another city or region? Use VPN to open an account? I couldn’t have imagined that the most innovative company in the world can create such problems for developers and leave them unresolved for half a year,” the developer says.

Owning a flat in Kyiv helped Igor out. He informed the support about it, and on September 24, Apple offered him the two alternative solutions:

1. either to provide proofs of possessing residential property in Kyiv – for example, to send through his household bills;
2. or to move to another region and re-register the account.

Igor chose the first option: he sent his utility bills and payment receipts. Following that, his account was activated.

“I still can’t believe that it all worked out. But the fact remains that, apparently, you cannot activate an Apple developer’s account from Donetsk Oblast. It is possible that the situation is the same with Ukrainian towns and cities in Luhansk Oblast,” Igor contemplates.

Accounts for sale

Eventually, Serhiy Lavrinchuk solved the problem with the account too. In order not to fail the client even more, with all deadlines already expired as they were, he bought him an account from one of the Telegram channels that register them via their foreign intermediaries for subsequent sale. He paid $400, but for that money, he received a ready-made work account in two weeks.

AIN.UA’s editor contacted the owner of the channel @Dev_iOS_Accaunts. His name is Oleksiy, and he is a developer from Kharkiv. Oleksiy resells accounts registered by his intermediaries from the UK, with a small premium. He makes about $30–40 off an account, devoting several hours a day to it. Dozens of people contact him every day, but there are not as many purchases, so it is rather a hobby than a business.

“It all started when I faced the account registration problem myself in November 2019. It turned out it had existed not only here, but in the whole CIS, as well as France, Poland, and other countries. I found a solution for myself, then helped several people I knew, and over time this grew into a Telegram channel. We learned how to create accounts precisely for a specific person’s name and surname,” Oleksiy told AIN.UA’s editor.

Clients mostly come from Ukraine and Russia; there were also two clients from Cyprus and one from Belarus. Usually, registration takes less than a week; in some cases, it could be a couple of weeks. Oleksiy does not disclose the mechanism. He charges his fees after creating an account under the client’s name, surname (as they appear on the travel passport), and date of birth. After activating the account, he passes the access keys over to the client, who changes them afterward.

“It is not as if account registration in the UK is smooth sailing – there are problems there too, but they are easier to resolve than when you register from Ukraine,” Oleksiy stresses.

“And it’s not that Ukrainians cannot possibly register an account. Ukrainian accounts can be created, but it is difficult.”

Beware of scammers!

Oleksiy and his colleagues can change their price tags – this depends on various factors, mainly on the number of intermediaries that they have to involve. Understandably, a developer’s account cannot cost less than what Apple charges for it, i. e. $99. Nevertheless, developers’ chats are frequented by people who “sell” such accounts for $70–75.

“They introduce themselves as intermediaries from the US or France, writing in terrible English, and you immediately know it’s a scam. However, I think, we need to warn people that they shouldn’t go for such things,” Serhiy Lavrinchuk points out.

What next?

Apple still fails to fix the payment issue with the Apple Developer Program, although it started almost a year ago.

“We can only guess why the problem arises. I have repeatedly asked Apple about this, but they refer to such things that are clearly irrelevant, like problems on the side of the bank,” says Oleksiy from @Dev_iOS_Accaunts.

Serhiy Lavrinchuk noticed that there is no field for entering the CVV on the order – just the card number, the name of the owner, and the card expiration date. He assumes that this is where the problem lies.

“Maybe, there is a way to automatically process payments without a CVV code in the US and Canada, but in Ukraine and the CIS countries, it is not possible. So, Apple has to process such payments manually,” he says.

PrivatBank and monobank have not even heard about the issue, and there has been no complaints from clients.

“Of course, this is to my advantage, one can say. But still, there is some uncomfortable feeling. Apple’s attitude is like you are not even a third-world, but a fourth-world country,” Oleksiy concludes.

There has been no official comments from Apple. AIN.UA’s editor tried to contact the global press center of the company, but received no answer.

Speaking with affected developers, Apple’s employees say that the company is aware of the problem and working on the solution, but do not give any specific timeline.

Besides fluent Ukrainian and excellent English, the following requirements included:

• Excellent active listening skills with the ability to understand verbal nuances in the Ukrainian dialect, including the variations across different Ukrainian provinces and territories;
• Experience as an end user of Siri, similar Intelligent Personal Assistants, or other AI;
• Attention to detail and critical thinking skills in the evaluation of Siri’s language usage and dialect;
• Ability to independently navigate systems and tools.

This position is located in the Apple European Headquarters in Cork, Ireland.

“As an Annotation Analyst, you’ll listen and transcribe audio files and evaluate Siri’s response and language usage. You’ll use your language and cultural knowledge, along with analytical skills, to evaluate responses against guidelines. We’ll train you to be an expert in understanding, supporting, and improving the customer experience. We are seeking applicants with fluency in the Ukrainian language,” says Apple in its position description.

According to the opening, the company needs a person who will be responsible for finance, with experience in accounting and strong analytical skills.

The requirements for the job seeker are as follows:

• Diploma in Accounting with minimum 5 years of proven experience in Ukrainian accounting and tax.
• Ukrainian and English languages.
• Excellent knowledge of SAP, Excel, and Keynote.
• Knowledge of financial reporting systems such as Tableau, EDW, BW.
• Strong analytical skills, ability to evaluate, analyze, and present data to a broad audience.
• Proactivity, excellent communication, and presentation skills.
• Attention to detail and proven track record to meet tight deadlines.

Such a specialist will be responsible for:

• Compliance of all statutory and tax reporting with Ukrainian GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Rules), US GAAP, and tax laws.
• Work with tax audits.
• Continuous legal entity oversight.
• Preparing quarterly reports for management, including balance sheet and income statement reviews.

You can apply for the position on the company’s website.

The date of registration is April 15, 2020, the registered address is located at IQ Business Center, the company’s CEO is Roman Humeniuk.

The editor of AIN.UA has sent a request to Apple asking to confirm or deny this information, but at the time of publication of the news we have not received a response. At the same time, Apple Inc. is listed as the final beneficiary in the registry. According to one of the sources, American Apple is indeed opening a Ukrainian company. However, AIN.UA has no official confirmation yet.

According to a source in the market, starting an Apple legal entity in Ukraine is important:

“In a likelihood, they will not distribute products themselves: it is a long and complicated process. But they can authorize several other suppliers of legal products in the country and to launch more localized service points. In any case, the legal presence of the company in Ukraine is important for the market.”

According to AIN.UA, the announcement of the launch of Apple in Ukraine may take place already this summer. However, the company has not yet officially confirmed its plans to work on the Ukrainian market.

“We are thrilled to offer Apple Business Chat, which gives us a powerful and engaging direct connection with our customers. The majority of our customers use iOS and we want to exceed their expectations when they experience EKTA. Apple Business Chat makes communicating with EKTA as easy as messaging a friend, so we expect it will quickly be adopted and preferred by our customers,” said Andrii Lototskyi, CIO of EKTA.

EKTA’s customers can use Apple Business Chat to contact a live agent and buy insurance policies quickly and securely using Apple Pay. When purchasing a policy, EKTA’s customers can add it to Apple Wallet. With Business Chat, customers can always reach a live person and are always in control of whether they share any contact information with a business.

To start an Apple Business Chat conversation, customers can tap the Messages icon on the contact page on EKTA’s website. With iOS 13, when a user taps to call EKTA, iOS offers a suggestion to start a Business Chat instead. If they choose to message, a conversation with EKTA agents will open instantly in the Messages app, and users can take their time responding when it’s convenient.

The project was implemented on the basis of Corezoid Process Engine technology in cooperation with the US company Middleware, EKTA’s digital transformation partner. From EKTA’s side, the implementation was handled by IT-Director Andrii Lototskyi and his deputy Sergiy Bros.

Apple Business Chat is available in beta for users and businesses worldwide, and is built into iOS 11.3 or later. The new chat suggestions feature is available starting with iOS 13. For more information visit website.

Genesis is a product company with offices in Kyiv, Kazakhstan, and Nigeria. It develops media outlets, dating sites, AdTech, e-commerce, and also invests in startups. Its most famous products are BetterMe, Kismia, VictoriaBrides, Jiji.ng. Its founders are Vladimir Mnogoletniy and Vasily Ulyanov. The BetterMe project is handled by Victoria Repa.

The current status of all applications of Genesis Technology Partners

iOS developers revealed the situation to AIN.UA editors. The main attention was drawn to a series of slimming and health applications called BetterMe.

According to SensorTower, in November, these applications cumulatively raised about $4 million on iOS, and the number of downloads exceeded 2 million.

The flagship project, BetterMe: Weight Loss Workout, earned more than $2 million in November and became the sixth largest App Store revenue earner in Health & Fitness category. Earlier, AIN.UA wrote about how the application was among top ranked apps in the App Store.

Currently BetterMe applications are gone – when you click on links from the official website or search results, the App Store informs about “unavailability in this region”.

BetterMe revenue and downloads estimates

It is noteworthy that only the Genesis Technology Partners account got sanctioned by Apple. Three applications of the BetterMe series are also published by the BetterMe Limited account – and they continue to work normally. But they have fewer downloads: according to SensorTower, this publisher earned in the App Store in November about $300,000 with 500,000 new downloads.

In response to a request from AIN.UA, Genesis said that it’s normal for Apple to regularly check large publishers. They did not say when the applications are expected to return to the store:

Genesis has over 15 apps. Right now, only BetterMe applications are being verified. Apple can (and this happens regularly) remove apps from its stores for a number of reasons. This is normal practice in the application development business. Now we are waiting for information from Apple on the status.

What could have happened

Developer David Barnard, who drew attention to the situation with BetterMe, told AIN.UA that before getting an official position, Apple does not see any reason to speculate on the issue. Earlier, he wrote that despite the aggressive promotion of the subscription, BetterMe application is made with high quality.

Other developers have identified several potential problems.

In particular, they note implausible content and ratio of reviews about the application.

In addition, in December 2019, users began to complain more about erroneous charges. BetterMe uses a subscription model, but offers short-term free periods (3–7 days).

The reviews for the application regularly read that the application writes off money at the start of the trial period, and not after its end. Technical support of BetterMe indicates that they do not provide a refund. Only Apple itself can do it. Write-offs reached $129 – $150.

Sources of AIN.UA, who wished to remain anonymous, and who are familiar with the rules of moderation of the App Store, did not give an unambiguous assessment of the situation.

According to them, Apple could remove the application for violating the rules for subscribing or buying fake reviews for manipulation. But since the company has not voiced its motives, it’s too early to definitely talk about it.

One of the developers also said that the situation with instant writing off of a subscription is a common problem. Apple itself is allegedly to blame for it, which for years has ignored the bug.

AIN.UA editors also contacted Apple but did not receive a response.

But the apps do not show it as part of any country when viewed from other countries, including Ukraine.

According to TechCrunch, the company made such a decision under pressure from the Russian authorities. The website of the State Duma informs that this happened after the meeting of the Russian authorities with Daria Yermolina, representing the interests of Apple in Russia.

“Apple fulfilled its obligations and brought the applications on its devices in compliance with the requirements of the Russian legislation,” Russian authorities say.

Similarly, Google maps show the Crimean peninsula. In a comment to TechCrunch, the representative of Google stressed that the company tries to follow the requirements of local legislation.

The Ukrainian party has already officially reacted to this change:

To recap, the United States imposed the first sanctions against Russia for the occupation of Crimea in July 2014. Since then, they have been repeatedly expanded and extended. The last time it was for a year, until March 2020. U.S. companies are banned from doing business in Crimea, that’s why many services such as Visa and MasterCard are not working on the peninsula.

Ukraine tops the anti-rating. According to the State Statistics Committee, the average monthly salary in the first half of this year was UAH 10,783.13 (UAH 8,680.4 net). Thus, in Ukraine, one will have to work 96.7 days to afford a new Apple smartphone. However, that is 40 days less than a year ago.

The leaders of the rating are Switzerland, the U.S., and Luxembourg, where the ratio of iPhone to average salary is the most favorable. The average Swiss will be able to afford the new iPhone 11 in 4.8 days, American – in 5.8 days, and Luxembourger – in 6.7 days.

In Poland and the Czech Republic, the new gadget is equivalent to 31.8 and 25.2 working days.

Methodology

The iPhone 2019 indicator was calculated on the basis of prices for iPhone 11 (64 GB) officially published on local Apple websites or authorized resellers. The average salary is taken from the websites of national statistical offices or relevant ministries. The salary is divided by 21 (average number of working days in a month).

On “Chernobyl” TV series

We reached out to HBO. Darko Skulsky, a co-founder of Radioaktive Film, began simply bombarding the production with photographs of locations, showing what we did and what we could do. Our portfolio already had elements of full-length films and entire feature films. Then we finished working on the fourth season of the French series “The Bureau of Legends”, which is talked about less, but which was also almost entirely filmed in Kyiv. And at some point, Darko managed to convince HBO. And the news that we are working together was followed by legal and financial requirements, so everyone sighed heavily and got down to work.

HBO cannot work with a Ukrainian company directly. Therefore, we worked with a Lithuanian company and most of the filming took place in Lithuania. We filmed 30% of what was on the screen, and sincerely believe that without us the series would have been different.

Being a production service, we embody any ideas. Our art department has done a huge amount of research. Now they say, “I had the same wallpapers at home,” or, “I had the same carpet at home”. Our prop makers were on the lookout for absolutely authentic things all over Ukraine, to the extent that the string bags that the heroes carry are real string bags of ’86. Amazingly, we found them in Kharkiv, neatly packed and still having labels of the packaging factory.

On Soviet esthetics and video

The thing that distinguishes service production from full-cycle production is that we do not work directly with the client. We work with foreign production, which for some reason cannot film anything wherever they are: in the case of Apple Watch advertising – in Los Angeles.

Initially, the idea of the agency was to shoot all the video in the subway. Ukraine is one of the few countries in the world where you can legally film in the subway. But there are limitations: you can only film for 4 hours after hours and when electricity is disconnected from the rails. There are exceptions. We moved along a separate additional tunnel for the Lacoste commercial. As an alternative, we offered Apple our Central railway station, which everyone loved.

Soviet monumentalism or brutalism and light devastation are what everyone comes to us for. It was propelled by Daniel Wulf when in 2013 he filmed Iron Sky mini-video for Paolo Nutini in Ukraine. The clip received the award at UK Music Video Awards for the best pop video and best cinematography. Essentially, Wulf has set the trend for Ukraine.

For us, these are the same locations. You finish filming, another film crew arrives, and you travel to the same locations. Hello, VDNH, hello, the cybernetic building of Shevchenko University, hello, hydrobiology. And every time you can see your hometown through someone else’s eyes. It allowed me to understand how beautiful it really is.

There is beauty even in panel houses. In June, short feature Troy premiered in New York. It was filmed by Gordon von Steiner. He shoots fashion-campaigns of Prada, Miu Miu. The entire short feature was filmed in Troyeshchina on the director’s money and based on his script: in schools, houses, apartments, flower stalls. This, again, showed me from a very unexpected angle that we have a very beautiful city.

On requests

Since we do not work with clients directly, requests that we get are rather technical. Once, we were working on a commercial, where in the finale, all the cars had to be suspended vertically to form the shape of a rocket. At the same time, three cars from the list did not exist, we had to produce and print them based on 3D models. As a result, the client said that their cars should not get off the ground or fly into space.

We filmed with thermographic cameras. Often we film with surveillance cameras. And besides the filming tasks, we need to think about the comfort of the people with whom we work. If a basketball player comes, we need to expand the bed in the hotel room. We recently rented a house that should be destroyed by a hurricane. We built it in full size, the exterior. We build houses often, and then we definitely subject them to something. And you never know what is coming.

On technologies and professional competence

When we need to film vertically, we put the camera on its side. But to be honest, we are retrograde in this regard. People who have been working in production for a long time, they like to say, “back when we used a film…” Now the era of the film is back, and clients have budgets to use it, which makes us extremely happy about it.

Because when they come and say that they will film commercials with two iPhones, I remember that you can either eat cookies at home, or you can eat them in a good restaurant. The cookies are the same, but the sensations are very different.

We are not showing off, we watch what the youth do and how everything progresses. When we filmed Guy Ricci’s Beats last year, we filmed it both with Arri Alexa camera and with 16 mm and 8 mm film, and two iPhones and GoPro, we are not squeamish about it. I tend to believe that professional competence is like riding a bike. “Chernobyl”, too, could have been shot with a mobile phone. But everything that happens in the frame, the props, acting, the way people are dressed, it is exactly what we are valued for.

On Ukraine

We participate for free and invest in social projects if we like the idea. For example, a video for Oxfam about how, because of tax evasion, countries do not receive the funding necessary for health care.

The video was directed by Tom Green, with Benoit Soler as a cinematographer, currently a very popular cinematographer. Myron Mens, one of the best gimbal operators, was roller-skating and holding a 40 kg camera in his hands. Behind the masks were Tolik Sachivko and his dancers from the Apache Crew.

We try our best to entice Ukrainian talents. For example, Tolik Sachivko as a choreographer works a lot on various projects. Our production designer Vova Radlinsky received a British Golden Arrow in the production design category, which is a very important award in the industry.

I want, and this is my personal goal, to prove to everyone who comes to Ukraine that we are not a third world country. Now, this stigma is fading away.

In the past, when foreign groups came to us, we could feel the stigma, “And now we are going to tell you what people wear in Paris.” I really want to communicate to these people that everything is OK, and we are part of the same cultural context and that we also have something good to show you.

Author: Aleksandra Marchenko, Head of PR and Communications of Depositphotos.

Background of the conflict

Kidslox is a Ukrainian startup founded in 2014, which is developing a parental control app for iOS and Android: it allows you to block harmful content and manage the time your children spend on a device. This application uses VPN and MDM (mobile device management) technologies to filter and block content, as well as to block the apps after the set time limit.

Kidslox explained that the startup uses these tools because Apple doesn’t offer other documented ways to implement these features. Still, Apple refused to update the app five times in 2018 due to the use of the company’s tools for “undocumented purposes”. Later, Apple said they changed their rules to prevent apps like Kidslox from collecting data about device owners, which means that the startup’s app will gradually become obsolete. And the alternative was to eliminate its core features.

According to the startup’s CEO, Viktor Yevpak, the startup held long negotiations with Apple. After six months, 19 letters and a few phone calls, the company allowed to use VPN, but banned MDM instead.

That’s when Kidslox appealed against the actions of the company. This company’s policy affected about 17 developers of similar services.

How the problem was solved

AIN.UA learned from the company that Apple “backed up” on this issue. “Apple agreed to cooperate with Kidslox and other parental control apps. This week, the company informed that they have changed the app review criteria and allowed to use the technologies that were available a year ago,” the company reported.

Indeed, the company did recently change app review criteria in the App Store Review Guidelines. The updates also relate to the MDM technology, which parental control applications are allowed to use.

Kidslox’s CEO calls it a big victory, but not the end. The company will continue to uphold the idea that Apple shouldn’t have an exclusive right to screen dependency solutions. “Apple keeps track of screen time only on their devices. We believe that Apple should allow all parental control apps to do this through a public API,” he says.

Earlier Kidslox informed that Apple decided to block updates for similar applications due to the fact that they introduced their own time control solution in summer of 2018 (same time when the issues with updates appeared).

What is the company’s activity?

Kidslox is a Ukrainian startup founded in 2014. It is working on the eponymous parental control application for iOS and Android devices. Kidslox allows you to block harmful content and programs on your child’s phone or tablet, keep track of how much time your child spends on a device, and set time limits for services.

The headquarters of Kidslox is located in Cherkasy. Victor Evpak is the founder and CEO of the startup.

What is the essence of the charges?

Kidslox began to publicly accuse Apple back in 2018: the startup published a blog entry where it stated that the American company was “killing the industry” of parental control. In the Kidslox they said that in the summer of 2018, Apple sent a report of a violation of API use rules to a startup and another company from the industry, Qustodio (also filed a complaint with the EU).

The American company noted that the Ukrainian startup violates guidelines on the use of VPN and MDM technologies – mobile device management. These are critical tools for the operation of the Kidslox application. The first allows you to track the time spent in applications, as well as filter unwanted content – for example, pornography. With the help of the second one, the Ukrainian start-up and other developers of the sphere block applications after exceeding the established time limits.

The Kidslox explains: the startup uses these tools because Apple does not offer other documented ways to implement these features. Moreover, representatives of Kidslox noticed that many APIs for VPN and MDM technologies are used not only by manufacturers of applications for parental control but also by other market players.

“We published the app on the App Store in 2014 and have since updated it more than 50 times. During this time, Apple had no complaints about us.”

In Kidslox they said that after its summer message, Apple refused to update the application five times (as of November 2018). The reason is the use of the company’s tools for “undocumented purposes.”

“Kidslox connects these solutions to the fact that Apple has implemented its own time control function. It happened just in the summer of 2018 — with the release of iOS 12: “[Since then], App Store moderators have systematically searched for reasons and ways to exclude other similar applications from the store.”

What does Apple say?

Apple said they revised their rules because of concerns that apps like Kidslox might collect a lot of information about the device owner. Representatives of the American company assured that they made changes not because they presented their similar instrument.

“We treat all applications equally, including those that compete with our own services. Our goal is to create an ecosystem of applications that will give consumers access to as many quality applications as possible.”

What will happen next

Kidslox and other market players point out that Apple is killing the industry of similar applications. “In our case, Apple’s decision effectively prevents us from further improving the application. The only update they will approve is the elimination of the main function. This will obviously betray the trust of tens of thousands of paying users. If we do not update Kidslox, it will eventually become obsolete,” the company wrote in a blog in 2018.

“In conversations with Apple moderators, I said that there must be a compromise because otherwise, it will lead to the death of a startup. More than 30 people work on the application, and you want to close it,” says Viktor Yevpak.

Pablo Ibáñez Colomo, a professor at the London School of Economics, in a commentary for the publication Wired noted that the EU will carefully consider such cases. This is because these decisions will greatly influence the way the application market works together.

How to win a ticket to WWDC?

Apple holds WWDC every year. The number of conference participants is limited, whereas the number of applicants is huge. That is why the company holds a lottery among potential participants. If a developer has been selected, his/her account is charged the cost of the ticket ($1,599) and he/she receives an invite. This year’s registration began on March 14, 2019. A week later Apple determined the winners and sent the invites. Vladislav was one of the few lucky to get the ticket, and on March 27 he received a letter from the company.

“For me, being a developer, attending the conference is a dream come true, but the U.S. Embassy had its own plans,” Vladislav laments.

Visa problem

After getting the invitation, the developer began collecting all the necessary documents to apply for a visa, paid the visa fee and made an appointment with the embassy. On April 15, he came to Kyiv to have an interview at the U.S. Embassy.

According to him, he had all the required documents, including the invitation from Apple, payment slip for participation in the event, air tickets, accommodation details in the U.S., account statements, the letter from employer Grid Dynamics, and copies of property titles. He also included this information in DS-160 (visa application form).

However, the embassy’s officer did not ask him to show any of the said documents. Instead, the officer inquired about the purpose of the visit and whether the applicant covered the trip expenses himself.

“I said that I paid from my own pocket, and then I was asked, “Why did you pay but not your company?” I answered honestly “Because that was my decision, I planned beforehand to spend money on this event.” No other questions were asked. 30 seconds later he handed me a paper and said: “You are denied to enter the U.S.” Those were the most unpleasant words that I have heard recently,” Kornieiev says.

The official letter states that the reason for ineligibility is article 214 b of the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act – i.e. there are doubts that the applicant will leave the U.S. According to the developer, in the past couple of years he has visited Europe multiple times, he has no violations and he does not understand why he was denied. The set of documents also contained papers confirming his employment and property ownership in Ukraine, but as we pointed out above, the embassy did not take them under consideration.

What’s next

The developer’s chances to attend the conference are very low now. You cannot appeal the decision of the embassy; you can only apply for a visa again. However, when he tried to go this way, his interview was appointed on June 11, whereas the conference ends on June 7.

“There’s no point for me to go to the embassy because by that time the conference will be over. The only way out is a request to expedite the visa issue, but you cannot do it without a valid reason (for example, health issues), and I don’t want to deceit anyone… But the hope springs eternal,” Kornieiev says.

Oleg Draiman from the previous year’s visa story got lucky. He managed to get the visa and attend WWDC-2018 after his story was published.

Update: at least one more user has reported having the same troubles with WDC-2019:

https://twitter.com/yahenskyi/status/1120590649307336704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1120590649307336704&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fain.ua%2F2019%2F04%2F23%2Fwwdc-i-problemy-s-visoj%2F

Igor visited Apple Store on March 6, 2018.

As indicated in the receipt above, the device had issues connecting to Wi-Fi, so Igor was given a new smartphone (full unit swap). In mid-April, Igor noticed that iCould was acting weird on the new device.

“The contacts would disappear. It was totally weird when FAVORITES tab showed phone numbers instead of people. It is not possible to do it any other way except for adding a person and deleting them from contacts. On top of that, my old phone popped up, but I did not have enough time to locate it”, Igor explained to AIN.UA.

Igor used BITPAY app, a fork of COPAY, to keep cryptocurrency on his old device. According to him, the app is considered reasonably safe and does not keep keys on the server. He kept the recovery key in Notes protected by a strong password.

On his new device, BITPAY app began to malfunction, get slow and freeze on wallet import.

He was able to sign into the app only after reporting the issue to support and reinstalling the app. He finally signed in only to find that his balance was 0, not 28 BTC. The funds were withdrawn on April 16, 2018.

Later, Igor received a ‘thank you’ 0.5 BTC, while the rest of bitcoins were divided by 2 BTC and distributed to multiple wallets of BINANCE exchange.

It is still a mystery for Igor how this all could happen. His old device had a PIN code and FaceID, and BITPAY app had FaceID authentication in place.

“It could be possible to retrieve key/wallet details from a backup copy. This option needs further exploration. If anyone managed to unlock an active phone, it also has passwords in iCloud Keychain, and apps (Google Auth, Authy, etc.) with two-factor authentication. These safeguards are in place for bank transactions, exchange transactions, withdrawal confirmation, etc. So, does it mean that the safest way is to keep a ton of papers hidden in various safes and never use them?” he wonders.

Apple’s customer support did not reply to Igor’s inquiries or provided any information about login attempts and time online of devices in question. A year later, and still nothing has changed. New device’s iCloud still malfunctions: it does not record contacts, and when it does, it duplicates them.

Arcade service will start work this fall and its cost is unknown. At the start, they promise a collection of more than 100 games that will be exclusives of the service. This means that they will not be available without a subscription to Arcade and will not receive ports on Android.

The bet on exclusives is not a novelty for the gaming business, but it was mainly a phenomenon of the PC and consoles market. Now Apple has adopted this tactic: the company will partially finance part of the projects, as well as work with indie developers to content Arcade.

Apple is concerned about the dominance of freemium-games on the App Store, as explained at the presentation. This model of monetization (free game + built-in purchases) makes it difficult for indie developers to succeed — they often rely on direct sales and cannot compete with projects of the Fortnite or Clash of Clans scale.

It should be noted that Apple itself just stands to benefit from such projects, the company receives 30% of all in-game transactions. To understand what amounts are in question, it is worth referring to the example of Fortnite. After launching on iOS in March 2018, by February 2019, the game earned more than $ 500 million — such an estimate is given by analysts from Sensor Tower. Consequently, Apple received about $ 150 million.

It is still unknown how the monetization of the new service will be organized: Apple has not disclosed what percentage of the proceeds will be distributed among the developers. What is known for sure: the games will be available without connecting to the network and they can be shared in the framework of “Family Access”. That is if the subscription to the service is activated by the head of the family, up to 5 people can use it.

Another key point is cross-platform. Apple announced that the games will be available on iOS, Mac, and Apple TV. At the same time, the service supports cloud synchronization of progress — you can start the game on one device and continue with the next one. This is another reference to Apple’s plans to make development for all platforms (from iOS to macOS and tvOS) a universal process.

However, while the complete list of available games is unknown. On the Apple site, only a few titles were allocated:

• Where Cards Fall by Snowman from The Game Band;
• Oceanhorn 2: Knights of the Lost Realm from the studio Cornfox & Bros .;
• Beyond a Steel Sky from Revolution Software;
• The Pathless from Annapurna Interactive and Giant Squid studios.

Technically, Arcade “settles” inside the App Store application, the service tab will replace the “Updates” section. The section filling will be handled by the Apple team of curators — there will be familiar features about developers and projects, passing tips and other interactive content.

What MacPaw does

Apple is not the first company which is going to sell monthly access to a collection of apps. For two years now, this business has been developed by the Ukrainian company MacPaw, best known for the CleanMyMac utility. In 2017, MacPaw launched Setapp, a Mac application store.

It works as a subscription ($9.99/month or $107.88/year) and currently provides access to more than 140 applications from 129 developers. There are family accounts – for $14.99 or $179.88/year and you can add an unlimited number of family members. In the future, the number of applications will be limited to 300 titles — as much is needed to cover all the needs of a Mac user. Now there are already 10 sections in the store: from tool developers to writing programs.

The projects have a different audience and content. Arcade is an entertainment service. Setapp is focused on increasing productivity and only on macOS. Arcade will sell new games that cannot be bought separately. Setapp collects existing expensive utilities and programs in one place, saving money on direct purchases.

But the projects are united by a business model: they sell applications by subscription, take part of the proceeds for themselves, and distribute the rest of the money among the developers.

This similarity is emphasized by the founder of MacPaw Alexander Kosovan in the comments for AIN.UA:

“By launching Arcade, Apple has created a service that, with its business model, is similar to the product MacPaw has been working on for several years.

In Arcade, users get access to mobile games selected by the Apple team for a monthly fee, just as Setapp users get access to applications for macOS.

Setapp’s vision is the optimization of the Mac App Store by solving its problems: an abundance of poor-quality applications, a difficult process of finding the right applications for specific tasks and unpleasant surprises in the form of advertising or additional in-app purchases. Setapp users have instant access to really high-quality, carefully selected applications, without additional purchases or advertising. (Today, 149 applications from 129 developers are available in Setapp).

We specifically focused on Mac applications, because we believe that people should have more opportunities to be productive, paying attention to what is really important.”

Unlike Apple, Setapp revealed how subscription earnings are distributed. Most of the revenue is received by the developers. 70% of the funds are divided between them, depending on the intensity of their application. 20% are distributed to partner deductions — developers get these bonuses depending on the “value” of the users listed. And only 10% gets MacPaw.

Speculating on how Apple will make money is meaningless. In addition, it should be borne in mind that the company will subsidize the development of certain applications. However, the news service Apple News Plus, which gives 300 magazines access to the content for a single subscription of $ 9.99/month, has already been criticized for aggressive monetization — there Apple takes 50% of its revenue. Because of this, the New York Times and the Washington Post refused to cooperate.

Why is it important

In order to collect more than 100 applications, the MacPaw team spent a year. Apple’s resources allow them to announce such a number of games from the start. Setapp collected 20,000 paying users 1.5 years after launch. The number of Arcade subscribers will be in the millions. But projects are symmetrically changing the established market for applications through subscriptions: Ukrainians are competing with the Mac App Store, and Apple wants to bring indie developers to the light.

Although Ukrainians are two years ahead of Apple, now it is up to Americans — the success or failure of Arcade will show whether users are ready to switch to a service model in yet another area of consumption. It has already become the norm to subscribe to movies, TV shows, books, and music. Perhaps the appearance of games and applications in the list is a matter of the near future.

“Bankers from all over the globe became anxious. American bankers are more anxious, while bankers from such countries as Ukraine are less anxious. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that Apple will launch their banking product in Ukraine in less than five years from now,” notes the co-founder of Fintech Band and one of the monobank project managers Dmitriy Dubilet.

He and his colleague from Fintech Band and monobank projects Oleg Gorokhovskiy provided three reasons as to why Apple Card won’t come to Ukraine, or at least in the foreseeable future.

Ukraine without Apple Card

1. Customer identification on Ukrainian banking market and, accordingly, the absence of the possibility to open an account without visiting a bank. “Unlike in the West, in Ukraine, it is mandatory for banks to meet a client in person to open an account. Clearly, all these problems can be solved, but in the nearest future Apple and Google are going to pursue other priorities,” notes Dubilet.
2. Another reason is a solid monopoly of a single player on the banking market, which can seriously limit the payment infrastructure. For instance, 70% of the infrastructure of POS terminals belongs to “PrivatBank”. Will Apple Card be able to utilize it? “I did not understand this point from the presentation. I think that there’s going to be a model where a client would get a card in Europe and replenish it from a Ukrainian card. Same way they replenish Apple Store account,” comments Gorokhovskiy.
3. Gorokhovskiy further notes that Apple still views Ukraine as a market with low purchasing power. Corruption and nontransparent regulatory framework do not do it any good either.

Undoubtedly, sooner or later global consolidation of banking sector, just like taxi, is bound to occur. However, launching a banking product on a new market is a monumental challenge. Each country has its own licensing process in place, own KYC/AML processes, own payment systems and credit reference bureau.”

It’s a win-win for everybody. Except for banks

Nonetheless, according to Dubilet, Ukrainians will also benefit from yesterday’s announcement. “Apple showed that Visa/Mastercard can bend their rules here and there to allow the issue of cards without any number, CVV or expiration date. We are already preparing papers addressed to these payment systems requesting their approval for monobank to provide their clients with the same option,” he announced.

All in all, Gorokhovskiy believes that yesterday’s announcement sends an important message to the entire banking sector. “In their model of the world (Apple – ed.), there’s no place for banks and other intermediaries in retail transactions. Banks would be left with KYC (identification and figuring out sources of funds), loans and capital management,” he notes.

In addition, loans could also be under question: considering the amount of cash on the company’s accounts, Apple could easily engage in issue of retail and medium loans for entrepreneurs.

“There are no local playgrounds, everything is global and no one should take it easy. But they are sending this signal all the time. Apple Pay is also a signal.”

Apple

On the American Apple site, a set of professional applications is available, the standard cost of which is over $629. This includes the Final Cut X video editor and two related utilities, the Logic Pro audio editor and the MainStage live performance plugin. Students can get a bundle for $200.

Even though the promotion does not officially apply to Ukraine, in a conversation with Apple’s technical support, AIN.UA journalist was assured that by providing a valid edu address and paying for the package, applications can be activated in any regional App Store.

Apple also offers a student’s tariff for a streaming service Apple Music. The discount will be 50% off the regular price of $4.99. It can be arranged in a few steps.

Google

If the educational institution has a partnership with Google, your corporate email will be the key to your G Suite Education account. Its main advantage is unlimited space in the cloud (single files should not exceed 5 TB).

In addition, specialized applications and more convenient file management between the users are available in this tariff.

Office 365

Microsoft provides students with free access to all Office applications. In order to do this, the university must enter into an agreement with the company. If cooperation is established, the student should register on the learning portal.

You will receive the Office suite, 1 TB of cloud space on OneDrive, and an access to the Teams command messenger.

Microsoft Imagine Academy

This is another promotional offer from Microsoft. This is an educational IT project designed to introduce students to the development and use of professional software.

After registration and verification, members get access to cloud computing on the Azure platform, downloading the Visual Studio Community, Parallels Desktop, Xamarin Studio, a free developer account in the Windows Store.

You can also use educational materials from Microsoft Virtual Academy courses.

Adobe

The developer provides students with discount access to the Creative Cloud software package.

You can get all the applications with a 60% discount for $20 per month instead of the usual $50. In addition, students can use a plan for photographers with Photoshop and Lightroom for $10 per month.

Autodesk

CAD application developer company distributes all of its software for free if you register a student’s account.

It is a huge advantage – the standard price of one of the most famous Autodesk solutions, automatic design AutoCAD system, reaches $1,500 for use per year.

Students get not only free installations on two devices, but also an access to Autodesk Design Academy training materials.

MacPaw

Ukrainian computer software developer offers students a 30% discount on all applications. You can also get a 50% discount on the purchase of an annual subscription in the SetApp service. It offers over 100 macOS utilities and applications.

Ableton live

The program for studio and live games, popular among musicians of all levels, is also sold with a student’s discount.

The price depends on the edition: the standard package for students costs $259 (instead of $499), and the full suite costs $449 (instead of $749).

JetBrains

A developer of programming tools provides all of his products for free if you register with an official student’s email address.

Students can download development environments for different languages, platforms and tasks, as well as code collaboration tools and learning applications.

Confirming the student’s status is required to be done annually through filling out a web form.

Evernote

One of the most popular online notes. The program is available on all leading platforms and in the form of web version. Students can get a 50% discount for the first year of using the Premium plan.

It activates an unlimited number of devices for synchronization, the presentation of notes, increased limit on cloud storage, added option to work with PDF as well as other functions.

Prezi

The service for easy creation of presentations provides students with free access to the Standart plan in which you can create an unlimited number of files and share them via links.

The company asks for $7 per month instead of $19 per month for the EDU Plus tariff. It includes offline access, voice memo support, video upload, and PDF export.

Norton Antivirus

Antivirus is distributed at a student’s discount.

This way the company charges $14.99 instead of $49.99 for standard access to protect a single PC. Protection for a single Mac or mobile device costs $19.99.

LastPass

The popular password manager provides 6 months of free use of the premium tariff. The price with the discount is $2 per month.

A paid account allows you to share passwords, provides 1 GB of secure cloud storage, priority access to support, and a plugin for applications.

Wolfram | Alpha

This is a cloud service for mathematical calculations, search for scientific information and analysis of statistics. Wolfram | Alpha can solve problems in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and visualize information.

Students can buy a subscription to the Pro-version with a discount of 20% or 30%, depending on the form of payment – by semester or per year. It will cost $33 and $57 respectively.

Scrivener

This is a text editor for voluminous work: stories, academic studies, etc. It has a convenient organization of materials for research and the mode of compiling several files.

Scrivener is useful for students when writing a diploma or coursework. The program is sold with a discount – students can get a copy for $38.25 instead of $45.

Ulysses

Another text editor available on iOS and macOS. It relies on the simplicity and ease of the interface, as well as working with the universal Markdown-format. The program is distributed by subscription since last year.

Students can get a significant discount by paying $10.99 for access for six months. After that, the discount will disappear – the standard access will cost $4.99.

Asana

This is the service for joint project management and communication which offers students a six-month free trial.

To use it, you would need to register in the system, create a team and invite there more than 5, but less than 100 people. Then you would need to apply to the Premium rate for students. Its usual price is $9.99 per month.

In Asana, you can assign tasks, create checklists, projects and plan activities.

GitHub Student Developer Pack

GitHub company offers a whole list of promotional offers in the Student Developer Pack. To get it, you need to write a small letter of motivation from an edu e-mail. Then the message is sent to moderation. The winners are notified about the successful passage via mail. Developer Pack includes:

• text editor Atom;
• AWS Educate Discount;
• year of free use of the Bitnami platform;
• certificate for hosting DigitalOcean;
• free domain in .me zone and SSL-certificate from namecheap registrar;
• unlimited number of closed repositories on GitHub,
• special tariff in the service of creating mailings SendGrid.

This is not a complete list — there are many more tools in the Developer Pack. Mostly they are programmers-oriented.

The New York Times

One of the world’s most famous publications offers unlimited access to materials and applications at a fixed price of $4 per month or $30 per year.

It is much cheaper than a standard digital subscription starting at $12 per month.

Students can also sign up for the All Acces tariff: it has access to the NYT Crossword service and the NYT Cooking cookbook.

At Apple I was around 13 years in product design division in California. I worked on both the iOS and Mac product range, heavily focusing on materials and material development, also on sustainability, removing toxic chemicals, finding substitutes, making more energy efficient, more recyclable versions. At the time we were the first company to deliver green environmental performance through product design. This is something Steve Jobs and I worked closely on, when the rest of the industry was focusing mainly on environmental housekeeping.

We did lots of life cycle analysis and what we found was that improving the performance of your buildings accounts for about 1% of all environmental footprint of a company. And about 75% of it has to do with the products that you and your customers use. So we decided to focus our best engineering efforts on making products greener.

You personally were acquainted with Steve Jobs, Tim Cook and other famous CEOs of the Valley. How did it feel to work with them?

It was intense. Steve ran a very tight ship. And he was the most remarkable person I’ve ever worked with, and certainly the most demanding. He expected you to be the world’s expert in what you do. And if you weren’t – let’s say there was not a lot of wiggle room. He would call me Saturday mornings at 10 am and to this day I don’t know why he would choose that particular time. We would talk about all sorts of things, product design issues on the environmental side, recycling programs. And it was always a good idea to have a strong cup of coffee before 10 am on Saturday 🙂

How did you join Nest?

During my time at Apple I worked  with Tony Fadell.. He left Apple before me and in 2010 he came across an idea to build a smart thermostat for a new house that he was building. At that time thermostats that were available on the market were all very poorly designed. Most of them hadn’t have any design engineering at all, and those that had looked very old-dated, like they were released in 1980-90-ties.

He saw the gap in the market, and a  team of around ten engineers from Apple and started developing the first generation of Nest, that was in fact the world’s first smart learning thermostat. First generation was launched in 2011.  In the early days at Nest I built business development and international partnerships which was a very big career change for me but in the end it became something I really enjoyed doing.

You were able to get more than 100 partnerships for the startup, and eventually to help build a company that was sold for $3.2 bln to Google, how did you do that? Can you offer a piece of advice on success in sales for young startups?

We had a couple of big advantages. We invested a huge amount of effort and engineering detail on the design of the hardware and software. And at the time we were the only company that had both engineering corners under our control. Most other manufacturers did the hardware part in China and outsourced the software. We didn’t take that approach because that device really had to produce beautifully choreographed user experience and because it had a lot of algorithmic complexity to it. We knew that the only way to do this was to have  complete control over software and hardware.

So we could go to our partners and quickly show them the difference in performance and features between our product and our competitors”. It also meant we didn’t have to follow the same retail channels that our competitors  relied on. Many of them were more or less stuck selling their products through DIY retail chains and we went into mass and high end electronic market, gadget stores, we opened an entirely new channel with energy companies. One major difference was our relationship to energy companies throughout North America.  We figured out a way to aggregate the control of air conditioning units across hundreds of thousands of Nest thermostats. Suddenly Nest was were no longer a smart home gadget, instead it was now a virtual peaker plant that energy companies could call on to help manage grid stability during hot summer afternoons, .

During first year we more or less had to educate retail about what our product can do, but during the second year people were reaching out to have partnership with us.

What was your role in preparing deal with Google? Was it hard to negotiate with Google?

Google has a division called Google Ventures. They were following our journey from the start, because they were one of our six very early investors. They knew Tony for a long time and knew his track record as a God father of an iPod and iPhone.

As in every acquisition you first and foremost want to take care of your colleagues, especially if you had taken them out of high flying roles in other companies including Apple to take risk with you in building a thermostat. In negotiations it is always important to make sure that everyone gets a fair outcome and more importantly – you don’t want to do anything that has a risk of them leaving.

You can compare being independent entrepreneur and a hired worker. What are ups and downs in both modes and why did you choose to run your own projects?

I certainly can’t see myself going back to a big corporation. On the one hand if you asked me the same question 10 years ago I just wouldn’t have been ready to go to be a CEO or investor. But 12 years at Apple and 5 years at Nest and Google – that’s a sort of a training camp that prepares you to just about anything in the business world. With all that experience I feel that my impact on early stage high growth companies can be quite profound. For me it is one of two very important ingredients for feeling happy in my career: Am I having an impact? And am I dealing with something that is on the leading edge of a very new direction, disruption?

When you get into big corporation as an executive, you end up becoming much more detached from high impact product related decisions, instead you get a lot of people related and governance related issues. Some people out of business schools love that kind of thing but for me I feel like I’m wasting time. I’d much rather be with a smaller team that could grow triple digits every year, helping them to make meaningful decisions.

Please tell about your new projects, especially – about Ukrainian startup that you joined.  

There are two companies to speak of. There is company in Ljubljana called Sleepy Bottle, which is the world’s first smart baby bottle. You plug it into USB-port by your bedside table and it heats the water to a perfect 37 degrees Celsius. When the baby is ready to feed, all you have to do is to twist the neck of the bottle and shake it. We are launching in three weeks in London in a big department store.

The second one is in Kyiv and it’s an IT-recruiting company. From my experience in Google it was extremely difficult for us to get high end developer talent. If Google can’t get enough developers with its resources and reputation, what must it be like if you are a bank or oil company or pharmaceutical company? So I was introduced to a company named HireHunt [Ed.note: now called as  Global Talent Advantage ] which is located in UNIT.Сity. At the time they had an ecosystem of 20,000 developers and during six months that turned into 52,000 developers. And I have taken CEO position with them. I’m helping to bring London and Silicon Valley based customers who need developers in Kyiv.

How did you find them and why did you choose to become a part of the team?

They were part of an accelerator in Ljubljana. I was giving a keynote speech there and the representative of that accelerator was in the audience. She invited me to meet some of the startups and that’s how I’ve got to know the team. I never jump into things immediately, I take my time to peel the layers, to understand the culture of the company, skill set of the management team. But in that case the potential was immediately obvious. Seeing how much talent was available across Ukraine and particularly in Kyiv was not news to me, but having met the company that established themselves on almost no budget and became top brand for job search and training – that seemed like a remarkable achievement to me. What they needed was a channel to North Western Europe and North America and I could see how I could build that channel, make an impact.

Did you get an equity in the company, under what conditions did you take a role of CEO?  

For most people in my position who were in large corporations and built startups from scratch it is really about impact and growth. For sure having a package which is based on equity is important for any startup that is looking to attract right business experience. But in most cases it is really about the chemistry, opportunity and timing. If there’s equity linked to that, it just helps with the decision.

What would you say about Ukrainian IT-community and IT-market?

It seems that every time I go here I learn something new about it. First of all I’ve fallen in love with Ukraine. It’s a wonderful place to visit and it has so much potential. And there is no other area on the Globe that I’m aware of, with such a concentration of highly ambitious and highly skilled IT-specialists, both hardware and software. And of course when I say that people often respond like: Yeah but what about Silicon Valley? In numbers these places can compete, but they cannot compete in ambition and drive. Developers in the Valley have lot of expectations from employers, huge salaries, bonuses. Whereas people I meet in Ukraine are driven mostly by the need to move forward, to develop exciting new projects. It is really about innovation for the sake of innovation.

Ukraine for now is in near-war conditions, and economy is not at its best – didn’t it scare you off when you were thinking about doing business here?

Most of the people I know who have that sort of fears, just don’t understand Ukraine. If they visited Ukraine and spoken to local people, as I did, they’d change their mind.